Former superintendent loves retirement

CARLSBAD -- Bill Berrier spends his days walking, reading,
volunteering, mingling with family members and traveling -- and
loves every minute of it. "There are no down-sides (to
retirement)," Berrier said last week in an interview at a
restaurant in south Carlsbad.

Berrier, 67, served as the superintendent of the San Dieguito
Union High School District for nearly three decades before retiring
in June 2001. He was replaced by Peggy Lynch.

At the time of his retirement, Berrier was the longest-serving
high school district superintendent in San Diego County. He joined
the district in 1965 as the assistant principal of San Dieguito
High School and was promoted to superintendent in 1972.

When Berrier assumed the superintendent's post, the district had
three schools and 2,500 students. The award-winning district now
serves nearly 12,000 students at 10 middle and high schools from
south Carlsbad to Carmel Valley.

Now and then

Berrier said much has changed since he began his San Dieguito
career in a time of turmoil when students were protesting en masse
and public educators had to discipline teens for having long hair,
beards or skirts that revealed a girl's knee.

Berrier said he had to enforce those standards, even though he
didn't necessarily believe in them, and is glad that public school
rules have become more progressive.

"We've learned to accept kids (for who) they are," Berrier
said.

School board President Barbara Groth said she first met Berrier
when she was a student at San Dieguito High and Berrier was the
campus disciplinarian.

"He was law and order," she said.

Groth said Berrier once yelled at her for kissing her boyfriend
-- a man who would later become her husband.

"We laugh about it," she said.

Perhaps the most influential change in public education during
Berrier's career was a transformation of how schools are financed,
he said.

Districts once relied on local property taxes as their main
source of funding, though that income was replaced with a state
allowance based on attendance as a result of the passage in 1978 of
Proposition 13. The anti-tax initiative cut into the revenue of
school districts throughout the state.

The reverberations of Prop. 13 are still felt in the San
Dieguito district. Because the district's funding is tied to the
fortunes of the state, San Dieguito has taken a financial hit in
recent years because of unfunded and partially funded mandates,
budget cuts and deferrals.

San Dieguito's $82 million budget for the fiscal year that began
July 1 includes a projected $8.6 million shortfall. The district
would tap into its $14.3 million reserve to close the spending gap,
depleting that fund by more than 60 percent.

"That's what your reserve is there for, to deal with
emergencies," Berrier said.

The former superintendent did not take issue with the district's
spending practices in his absence, and said he tries to steer clear
of San Dieguito's business.

"The best thing I could do after being there for 30 years was to
stay away," he said.